Our first show of the year tackles the rumblings occurring at Bandai Entertainment, as we hold a roundtable discussion about the recent changes with the company.

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WOOT Neo straight talk! I actually watched the video and retort from The Anime Overviewer, and I can't agree with you guys more. Jeez... There's the blatant facts, and the truth of these guys being ignorant about Desti...oh wait, hang on, about BLANK is just sickening. Love how Chris of all people had to reign you in.

Pity Bandai's gone essentially in terms of producing future shows themselves, and how Sunrise basically wants a company to either take all the Gundam shows or none at all. Then again, since that DOES include BLANK, that may be yet another deterrent.

_________________From 00 S2 ep 25

Tieria: As long as you keep looking down on them, you'll never understand them!Ribbons: *has Newtype-y flash of AGE, of Kio and his UNDERSTANDING replacing his show* I DON'T WANT TO UNDERSTAND!

Thanks guys for the great episode and another lively discussion. The whole thing of Bandai Entertainment having to bid on anime from their parent company seems odd, but I'm not surprised about that. When I used to live in Japan I remember DVD box sets of "24" for 10000 yen thats crazy and another time was at Book-Off they were selling a used copy of Gundam Movie 1 on BD for 4890 yen.

The only thing Bandai Entertainment did right in the last few years was release Code Geass Volume Special Editions they put so much effort in those special editions but I was sadden when they didn't release anything extra for R2 sets.

the fact that bandai ent had to bid on licenses wasn't even the worst of the stupid. there were plenty of cases where they were forced by bandai japan to win those bids, thus overpaying for a lot of their library.

As for the protagonist(s) of the show that shall not be named - it doesn't ZOINKS matter who wore the protagonist's hat, because they're all terrible characters. Kira doesn't develop at all, Athrun is running through the same development arc as he did the previous series without the gravitas of having to confront his father, and Shin is less and less of an agent in the plot as progresses. So screw all of them, I'm happy the destiny dvds will be going out of print soon.

Damn Neo just snapped... and I guess you just pulled a Geneon too by canceling Jabman's show lol.

Just real quick about SOPA, I saw a Youtube clip of those guys supporting the bill and throughout the video the guy never even had a complete sentence. It was just "umms, you know, uh... you know technology... uh..." yeah you get the idea.

Great episode guys. The Japanese otakus' purchasing habits haven't really changed since the late '80s. These guys have been paying these exorbitant amounts of money for VHS, LDs, DVDs, and now BDs for more than 15 years with almost no visible signs of changing. They could justify paying for these prices by saying that they're getting a quality product and that any anime DVDs manufactured outside Japan is garbage. The Japanese otaku also have the belief that in order to be a good fan and support the brand or franchise, all the items must be purchased. Whether it be a good or bad product. One of the ways that their purchasing habits could change is when their economic status changes to their worst (loss of job, income, etc.) due to Japanese economy going bad.

You guys are absolutely right regarding Japanese anime companies not caring about the global market. As long as they get a steady revenue stream from Japan, the rest of the world is an after thought. The companies will only care about the rest of the world once they've oversaturated the Japanese market and the fans stop supporting them. This is what happened to some J-pop music. The market got oversaturated with their products and the fans started to leave. The musicians then realized that they also have fans in Korea and China and thus, started to market their music overseas to get those revenues.

Its a really complicated problem that will only be really addressed when its too late.

Man what a way to start the year, really sad. I sometimes wonder if being an anime fans is worth it. I can't really add to what you guys have said, the real problem now is be how long is this stuff going to say in print, I have 00 movie blu-rey but I guess I am going to have to get Haruhi Movie as well, at least they gave us many an anime we all love.

No comment on the main character thing.

_________________Agent Zero of Team NeoEverywhere I have searched for peace and nowhere have I found it, except in a corner with a book Dollow's BlogDollow's Twitter

Personally I always thought Athrun seemed more like the main character just out of sheer on screen time and involvement. Not to say they didn't sell Shin as the main character, everywhere else, except the show.

Great episode again, especially with Neo's rage at **censored**. You guys as usual were spot on and really articulated one of my main issues with the show. Always have wondered what would have happened if they had stayed the course with Shinn, but then again it probably would've still ended up crappy anyway.

Sad to see the whole Bandai Entertainment situation...hoping this doesn't mean the complete death of Gundam in NA (what little there is/was to begin with). Also hoping that Sunrise does another panel at Otakon and can perhaps address the NA market situation and their plans for it (or not).